The present invention relates to a portable ion generator. More particularly, the present invention relates to a portable ion generator wherein the ion generator is so compact-sized that the ion generator is conveniently carried, the life span of a discharge unit is lengthened, and power easily obtainable from the surroundings is used.
As environmental pollution becomes serious, the number of people who suffer from various respiratory diseases or allergic diseases due to polluted air has increased. For this reason, various attempts have been made to generate negative ions, thereby purifying polluted air and thus improving quality of air.
Ions include positive ions and negative ions. The negative ions are oxygen or nitrogen molecules in air having negative charges.
In recent years, it has been proved that negative ions are effective in removal of dust, smell, and noxious chemical materials and thus very helpful to a human body. Therefore, an ion generator is increasingly mounted in various electronic products, such as air conditioners for home use, hair dryers, water purifiers, air conditioners for vehicles, and other air conditioners for indoor heating and cooling.
Also, air conditioners having a negative/positive ion generator for generating positive ions as well as negative ions to purify air have been proposed in consideration of the fact that it is not possible to effectively remove bacteria floating in air by generating only negative ions. In particular, the positive ions are used to form positive (+) cluster ions, which are necessary to form OH radicals in air.
Based on a principle of generating ions, the ion generator may be classified as a corona discharge type ion generator, an electron emission type ion generator, an ion generator using a Lenard effect, or an ion generator using a-rays.
The ion generator using a Lenard effect and the ion generator using a-rays are expensive and are mainly used for industry. For these reasons, the ion generator using a Lenard effect and the ion generator using a-rays are not applied to electric home appliances.
Therefore, the electron emission type ion generator, which selectively generates positive ions or negative ions, may be widely used. In the electron emission type ion generator, pulse type high voltage is applied to a discharge unit to directly emit electrons in air, thereby generating negative ions.
The emitted electrons are coupled to air molecules to generate negative ions. In the electron emission type ion generator, a larger amount of negative ions is generated than in the corona discharge type ion generator, in which ground electrodes are opposite to tips. In the electron emission type ion generator, the discharge area is small, thereby reducing an amount of ozone generated. In recent years, therefore, the electron emission type ion generator has been widely used.
Generally, a material having a tip end is used as a discharge tip in order to apply high voltage to air. This is because, although the same voltage is applied, higher voltage is applied to a tip having a smaller radius. This principle is equally applied to the electron emission type ion generator.
In the related art, a needle type discharge unit, the end of which is artificially sharpened, or a wire type discharge unit is used as the discharge tip. For a tip manufactured through physical processing, however, reducing the radius of the tip is limited. As a result, an amount of ions generated per area is small due to the physical size of the tip. In addition, the volume of the tip is increased, and power consumption is also increased.
The radius of the needle type discharge unit or the wire type discharge unit is minimized to apply higher voltage with the result that an amount of ions generated per area is small and a discharge surface of the needle type discharge unit or the wire type discharge unit is easily oxidized.
In conventional ion generators, a high voltage generation unit for applying pulse type high voltage to the discharge unit includes a transformer having coils. However, the volume of such a high voltage generation unit is large.
Also, the conventional ion generators have been added to air purifiers or air conditioners using alternating current power to generate ions.